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Police Lt. Justin Newsome identified the teenager as Darian Longoria, stating that investigators believe he was involved in robberies that involved drugs and that he was killed in connection to those crimes.

“No matter what the young man was involved in, he is still a 16-year-old child and his family still deserves closure,” Newsome said. “He did not deserve to die in the manner he did.”

Investigators used dental records to confirm it was Longoria, Newsome said. Authorities have determined the boy’s cause of death, but did not provide details citing the ongoing investigation.

Sources have led investigators to believe another group of people involved in drug robberies had critical information about the case. “We need to speak to those people,” Newsome said.

A father and son found Longoria’s remains while hiking along the creek near Bonneville Bend, just southwest of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, with a metal detector they had gotten for Christmas, Newsome said.

Longoria’s parents reported him missing on Dec. 9.

Investigators believe a group of people might have been involved in Longoria’s death. Newsome said it was unclear whether the teenager was killed at the creek or whether his killers had disposed of his body there, Newsome said.

The fact that Austin police homicide is investigating the case, and not the Travis County sheriff’s office, suggests that authorities believe Longoria was killed inside the city limits, instead of within the unincorporated area along near the 5200 block of Bonneville Bend where his body was found.